Liu Xiaobo ( born Dec. 28, 1955 , Changchun, Jilin province, ChinaChinese literary critic, professor, and human rights activist who called for democratic reforms and the end of one-party rule in China. In 2010 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Liu graduated from Jilin University in 1982, and he continued his studies at Beijing Normal University, earning a Ph.D. in 1988. By then Liu had already established himself as a prolific and erudite critic, rising to prominence in 1986 with a stinging examination of modern Chinese literature. He undertook a lecture tour of Norway and the United States in 1988–89, returning to Beijing as the pro-democracy movement in that city began to gather strength.

In the days leading up to the Tiananmen Square incident of 1989, Liu served as an adviser to the student protesters, and he joined protest leaders in a weeklong hunger strike. After the Chinese military forcibly cleared the square on the night of June 3–4, Liu went into hiding. He was arrested on June 6, and he spent 21 months in prison for his role in the protests. Upon his release, Liu continued his criticism of the Chinese Communist Party, and he was arrested in 1996 for advocating the release of those still imprisoned as a result of the Tiananmen Square protests. He spent the next three years in a labour camp.

In 2008 Liu helped draft the 08 Charter, a 19-point program that called for greater political freedoms in China and concluded with the signatures of more than 300 academics and intellectuals. Liu was arrested hours before the document’s release onto the Internet, and, at a trial the following year, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion.